Telehealth Glossary: 70+ Terms Defined in Plain English

Telehealth has developed its own vocabulary — a blend of clinical shorthand, billing codes, federal statutes, and networking jargon — and much of it is opaque on first encounter. This glossary defines more than 70 of the most common telehealth terms in plain English, organized alphabetically, so that clinicians, administrators, and patients can decode policy documents, payer manuals, and vendor pitches without a translator.

For deeper treatment of the legal and billing concepts defined below, see our guides to telehealth laws and telehealth reimbursement.

A–C

Ambient AI scribe — Software that listens to a clinical visit (with consent), transcribes the conversation, and drafts the visit note automatically using artificial intelligence. The clinician reviews and edits the draft rather than typing from scratch.

American Telemedicine Association (ATA) — A nonprofit trade and advocacy organization representing telehealth providers, health systems, and technology companies. The ATA publishes practice guidance and lobbies for telehealth-friendly policy.

Asynchronous prescribing — Prescribing based on a patient's answers to a structured online questionnaire, reviewed by a clinician without a live visit. Common in direct-to-consumer telehealth; some states restrict which medications may be prescribed this way.

Asynchronous telehealth — Care that does not happen in real time. The patient or a clinician sends information — images, messages, recordings, questionnaire answers — and a clinician reviews and responds later. Also called store-and-forward.

Audio-only telehealth — A visit conducted by telephone or another voice-only connection, with no video. Coverage for audio-only visits expanded dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains payer-dependent; it is often billed with modifier 93.

Bandwidth — The data capacity of an internet connection, which determines whether video can stream smoothly. Low bandwidth is a leading cause of failed or degraded video visits, especially in rural areas.

Business Associate Agreement (BAA) — A HIPAA-required contract between a healthcare organization and any vendor that handles protected health information on its behalf — including telehealth platform vendors. Using a video platform without a BAA is a common compliance failure.

Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) — A nonprofit policy center that tracks telehealth laws and Medicaid policies across all 50 states. Its state-by-state summaries are a standard reference for anyone comparing telemedicine laws by state.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — The federal agency that runs Medicare and oversees Medicaid. CMS sets Medicare's telehealth coverage and payment rules, making it the single most influential payer in U.S. telehealth policy.

Coverage parity — A state law requiring insurers to cover a service delivered via telehealth if they would cover the same service in person. Coverage parity does not necessarily require paying the same amount; that is payment parity.

Credentialing by proxy — A streamlined process, permitted by CMS and The Joint Commission, that lets a hospital rely on the credentialing decisions of a distant-site hospital or telemedicine entity rather than fully re-credentialing each remote clinician itself. Essential for services like telestroke that serve many small hospitals.

D–F

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) — The universal file and messaging standard for medical images such as X-rays, CTs, and MRIs. DICOM is what allows an image captured at one hospital to be read on another institution's systems, underpinning teleradiology.

Digital divide — The gap between people who have reliable internet access, devices, and digital skills and those who do not. The digital divide shapes who can actually use telehealth and is a central equity concern in program design.

Digital front door — A health system's collection of patient-facing digital entry points — website, app, portal, scheduling, symptom checkers, virtual visits — treated as a coordinated way for patients to begin and navigate care.

Digital therapeutics (DTx) — Software-based interventions intended to prevent, manage, or treat a medical condition — for example, an app delivering structured cognitive behavioral therapy. Some digital therapeutics are cleared or approved by the FDA; many are prescribed like a medication.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) telehealth — Telehealth services marketed straight to patients, typically through an app or website, without a referral from the patient's existing provider. Common for urgent care, dermatology, mental health, and lifestyle prescriptions.

Distant site — The location of the clinician delivering a telehealth service. In Medicare billing, the distant-site practitioner bills for the professional service.

E-consult — An asynchronous, clinician-to-clinician exchange in which a primary care provider sends a question and relevant records to a specialist, who responds with advice without seeing the patient directly. E-consults can resolve questions that would otherwise require a specialty referral.

E-prescribing — Transmitting prescriptions electronically from the prescriber's system directly to a pharmacy. Federal rules impose extra security requirements (including identity proofing and two-factor authentication) for e-prescribing controlled substances.

Electronic health record (EHR) — The comprehensive digital record of a patient's health information, designed to be shared across organizations and settings. Most large telehealth programs integrate their video platform with the EHR.

Electronic medical record (EMR) — The digital chart within a single practice or organization. In everyday speech EMR and EHR are used interchangeably; technically the EHR is the broader, interoperable version.

Encryption — Encoding data so that only authorized parties can read it, whether the data is moving across a network ("in transit") or sitting on a server ("at rest"). Encryption is a baseline expectation for any telehealth platform handling patient information.

Facility fee — A separate payment made to the originating site (the facility where the patient is located) in some telehealth arrangements, in addition to the professional fee paid to the distant-site clinician.

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) — A modern data standard (pronounced "fire") that lets health software systems exchange specific pieces of clinical data — a medication list, an appointment, a lab result — through web-style interfaces. FHIR is the connective tissue behind most modern EHR-integrated telehealth apps.

Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) — A community health center that receives federal funding to serve underserved populations and is paid under special Medicare and Medicaid rules. FQHCs' ability to bill Medicare as telehealth distant-site providers has depended on pandemic-era flexibilities; verify current status with CMS.

Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) — The national organization of state medical licensing boards. FSMB publishes model telemedicine policies and tracks state licensure requirements.

G–I

Geographic restriction — A payer rule limiting telehealth coverage to patients located in certain areas — historically, Medicare's requirement that patients be in rural areas. Pandemic-era policy suspended this restriction for most services; its long-term status depends on Congress.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) — The federal law establishing privacy and security requirements for protected health information. HIPAA governs how telehealth platforms must safeguard patient data; see our HIPAA guide for specifics.

HL7 (Health Level Seven) — A standards organization, and shorthand for its family of healthcare data-exchange standards. Older HL7 v2 messages still move much of the data between hospital systems; FHIR is HL7's modern standard.

Hospital-at-home — A care model in which patients who would otherwise be admitted receive hospital-level care in their homes, combining in-person visits with remote monitoring and virtual rounds. Medicare has supported this through a waiver program whose continuation depends on congressional action.

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) — The federal agency that funds health centers, workforce programs, and telehealth resource centers, and that administers programs supporting rural and underserved-area telehealth.

Hub-and-spoke model — A telehealth network design in which a central "hub" (typically an academic medical center or specialty group) provides remote expertise to multiple "spoke" sites such as rural hospitals and clinics. Telestroke networks are the classic example.

Informed consent — The process of ensuring a patient understands and agrees to receive care via telehealth, including its limitations, privacy considerations, and alternatives. Many states require telehealth-specific consent, documented in the record.

Interoperability — The ability of different health IT systems to exchange data and actually use what they receive. Standards like HL7, FHIR, and DICOM exist to make interoperability possible.

Interstate compact — An agreement among states that streamlines practicing across state lines. Examples include the IMLC for physicians, the NLC for nurses, and PSYPACT for psychologists.

Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) — A compact among most U.S. states that offers qualifying physicians an expedited pathway to full licenses in other member states. It speeds up multistate licensure but does not eliminate the need for a license in each state.

J–L

Latency — The delay between when data is sent and when it arrives. High latency causes the lag and talking-over-each-other effect in video calls; very low latency is essential for advanced uses like remote-controlled procedures.

Licensure — The state-issued authorization to practice a health profession. In the U.S., clinicians generally must be licensed in the state where the patient is located at the time of a telehealth visit — the single biggest legal constraint on multistate telehealth.

Licensure exception — A state provision allowing limited practice without a full in-state license, such as for peer-to-peer consultations, follow-up care with established patients, or bordering-state arrangements. Exceptions vary widely and are usually narrow.

M–O

mHealth (mobile health) — Health services and information delivered through mobile devices — apps, text-message programs, and phone-based sensors. mHealth overlaps with telehealth but also includes wellness tools that never involve a clinician.

Modifier 93 — A billing modifier indicating a service was delivered via synchronous audio-only communication (telephone). It tells the payer the visit had no video component.

Modifier 95 — A billing modifier indicating a service was delivered via synchronous, real-time audio and video. One of the primary ways payers distinguish telehealth claims from in-person claims.

Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) — A compact in which a registered nurse holds one multistate license recognized by all member states, rather than separate licenses. Broader in effect than the physician compact, which expedites but does not consolidate licenses.

Office for Civil Rights (OCR) — The HHS office that enforces HIPAA. OCR's enforcement discretion during the COVID-19 public health emergency temporarily allowed everyday video apps for telehealth; that discretion has ended, and platforms must now meet standard HIPAA requirements.

Originating site — The location of the patient during a telehealth encounter. Medicare historically limited originating sites to specific clinical facilities; pandemic-era flexibilities added the patient's home for most services, subject to ongoing congressional extensions.

P–R

PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) — The system hospitals use to store, retrieve, and display medical images. Together with DICOM, PACS is what makes remote image reading routine.

Parity (payment parity) — A requirement that insurers pay the same amount for a telehealth service as for the equivalent in-person service. Fewer states mandate payment parity than coverage parity, and the distinction drives much telehealth policy debate.

Patient portal — A secure website or app where patients view records, message their care team, request refills, and often launch video visits. Portals are frequently the front door to a health system's telehealth services.

Peripheral (digital exam tool) — A connected device — digital stethoscope, otoscope, dermatoscope, or exam camera — that captures clinical-quality data at the patient's location and transmits it to a remote clinician, extending what a virtual exam can assess.

Place of service (POS) codes — Two-digit codes on claims indicating where a service occurred. POS 02 designates telehealth with the patient outside the home; POS 10 designates telehealth with the patient at home. Payment can differ between the two.

Protected health information (PHI) — Individually identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associates, in any form. Everything from a video visit recording to an appointment reminder can be PHI under HIPAA.

PSYPACT (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact) — A compact allowing participating psychologists to practice telepsychology across member states under a single authority. A major enabler of multistate telepsychiatry and telemental health networks.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) — The ongoing collection of patient health data — blood pressure, glucose, weight, oxygen saturation — from devices at home, transmitted to the care team for review and intervention. See our full guide to remote patient monitoring.

Remote physiologic monitoring codes — The CPT code family that pays clinicians for supplying RPM devices, collecting physiologic data, and spending clinical time managing patients based on that data. The codes generally require a minimum number of days of readings per month and documented management time.

Remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) — A parallel code family covering non-physiologic data — such as medication adherence, respiratory status, or musculoskeletal therapy response — often self-reported through an app. RTM opened remote monitoring billing to clinicians like physical therapists.

Rural Health Clinic (RHC) — A certified clinic in a rural, underserved area paid under special Medicare rules. Like FQHCs, RHCs' distant-site telehealth billing status has ridden on temporary federal extensions.

Ryan Haight Act — The 2008 federal law generally requiring at least one in-person medical evaluation before a controlled substance may be prescribed online. Pandemic-era waivers relaxed this; DEA has repeatedly extended telemedicine prescribing flexibilities while it develops permanent rules, so verify the current requirements before relying on them.

S–U

Secure messaging — Encrypted, authenticated communication between patients and clinicians, usually through a portal or app, as opposed to standard email or SMS. Increasingly billable when it involves medical decision-making.

Standard of care — The level of care a reasonably competent clinician would provide under similar circumstances. Courts and boards apply the same standard of care to telehealth as to in-person medicine — the modality does not lower the bar.

Store-and-forward — Another name for asynchronous telehealth: clinical information is captured, stored, and forwarded to a clinician who reviews it later. Classic uses include teledermatology photo review and radiology reads.

Synchronous telehealth — Real-time interaction between patient and clinician, most commonly live video or telephone. The counterpart to asynchronous care.

Tele-ICU — A model in which intensivists and critical-care nurses at a central operations center continuously monitor ICU patients at multiple hospitals through cameras, live data feeds, and alerting software, supporting the bedside teams.

Telehealth — The broad use of telecommunications technology to deliver health care, health education, and health administration remotely. Encompasses clinical telemedicine plus non-clinical uses.

Telemedicine — Remote delivery of clinical care by a licensed clinician — diagnosis, treatment, and management at a distance. Often used interchangeably with telehealth, though technically the narrower term.

Telepresenter — A trained staff member (often a nurse or medical assistant) physically with the patient during a telehealth visit who operates equipment, performs hands-on exam maneuvers, and relays findings to the remote clinician.

Telestroke — Emergency remote evaluation of suspected stroke patients by a neurologist via video, enabling rapid decisions about clot-busting treatment at hospitals without on-site stroke specialists. One of telehealth's most validated use cases within emergency telemedicine.

Teletriage — Remote assessment of symptom urgency — by phone line, chat, or app — to direct patients to the right level of care, from self-care advice to the emergency department.

V–Z

Video visit — A scheduled, synchronous appointment conducted over secure video between a patient and clinician. The prototypical telehealth encounter; see our video visit tips for making them go smoothly.

Virtual check-in — A brief, patient-initiated communication with an established provider — a short call or evaluation of a submitted image or video — used to decide whether a full visit is needed. Medicare pays for virtual check-ins under dedicated codes.

Virtual-first health plan — An insurance plan design in which members are directed to begin most care virtually, with referrals to in-person care when needed, usually in exchange for lower premiums or cost-sharing.

Wearables — Consumer or medical-grade devices worn on the body — watches, patches, rings, continuous glucose monitors — that passively collect health data. Wearables feed both consumer wellness apps and formal RPM programs.

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) — The open technology built into modern web browsers that enables encrypted, real-time video and audio directly in a browser tab with no download. WebRTC is the engine inside most telehealth video platforms; see how it fits the broader stack in our telehealth technology guide.

Webside manner — The virtual equivalent of bedside manner: the communication skills that build trust over video, including camera eye contact, deliberate pacing, narrating exam steps, and closing with a clear plan.